pumpkin apple crumb cake

I had mentioned that this Thanksgiving I took it easy in the kitchen. There was no time to fuss about with turkeys, sides or complicated dishes. I took the simple route and made only two things: the sweet potato, corn & jalapeño bisque and this crumb cake. It worked out perfectly because both the soup and this cake tasted deeply like autumn. And they were so easy to prepare that I could enjoy time with my guests and let the evening roll out easily. Simple pleasures, indeed.

Made with lightly sauteed apples and bursting with cinnamon and spice, this cake is kept moist with the addition of pumpkin puree. The original recipe calls for 4 cups of apples and a 9 inch round pan. I made this in an 8 inch cake pan and was able to only add in half the amount of apples. Worried that my cake would spill over, I took the extra precaution of putting a baking sheet underneath, but everything worked out perfectly. No spills! The batter rose up high in the oven and fell quickly when I took out the cake to cool. It was dense and delicious and perfectly unfussy....and I'm sure if you were short on time & didn't want to saute the apples, you'd still find yourself with a cake to be thankful for.

pumpkin apple crumb cake
(adapted from Bon Appetit)
2 large apples, diced (about 2 cups worth)
2 T demera sugar
1 T salted butter
1 t cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t cardamom
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t allspice
1/2 t salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3/4 c canned pure pumpkin
1/3 c plain yogurt
2 T sugar
1 t baking soda
2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350F and butter up an 8 or 9 inch cake pan. Set aside. In a large skillet, heat butter and stir apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Saute lightly for a few minutes until fragrant and the mixture starts to caramelize. Remove from heat.

2. Mix together the flour, salt, brown sugar, and spices. Cut in butter and use your hands to break up the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside 2/3 of a cup to use as crumble topping.

3. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, yogurt, sugar, baking soda and eggs. Stir in the flour mixture and beat until smooth. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Spread diced apples over top and then sprinkle with reserved crumb topping. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until cake is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack and serve with generous dollops of floppy maple whipped cream.

autumn sweets: salted honey caramel apples

This Halloween I wanted to make something special for our friends. We had a few scary movies planned but I wanted to make an autumn treat. When I saw 101 Cookbook's recipe for caramel apples, I was instantly won over. The ingredients were simple: honey, cream, salt, apples. The previous weekend, I picked up several kinds of apples at a local orchard and I had some local blueberry honey from a previous farm visit. Local heavy cream was easy to find and I figured adding in some imported french fleur de sel wouldn't ruin my almost all-local sweets. I also decided to toast and roughly chop some almonds which not only would provide a nice crunch and counter balance the sweetness, but would also provide some traction to prevent the caramel from sticking to my baking sheet. The resulting apples were beautiful and delicious. I should note, that if you don't like honey, don't make these as as the honey flavour is definitely there, even with a mild-tasting honey.

For the apples, I used Granny Smith's and Cox Orange Pippins which are both very crisp apples with a nice bit of tartness. I purchased the lollipop sticks at a local kitchen shop in Chinatown and got to work on the caramel. It was easy going and while I do have a candy thermometer, I really rely more on the old fashioned cold water test for figuring out which stage my caramel has reached. I can never get my candy thermometer to reach the "hard ball" stage but using my fingers to gauge a bit of caramel dropped in ice water never fails. For me it took about 30-35 minutes to reach caramel perfection. I was afraid that the caramel would slide off the apples, but luckily that didn't happen!

After dipping the apples in the caramel, I had extra caramel leftover, so I spread some out on my silpat mat, adding in some roasted almonds and some fleur de sel and let cool in the refrigerator. Once it was cool and ready to cut, I sliced the caramel into squares and wrapped the golden nuggets in waxed paper.

salted honey caramel apples
(adapted from 101 Cookbooks)
8 tart, crisp apples
8 lollipop or popsicle sticks
1 3/4 c heavy cream
1 3/4 c mild-flavoured honey
2-3 t fleur de sel
1/3 c chopped roasted almonds

Pierce apples with a stick and set aside.

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, heat the cream and salt until small bubbles appear. Whisk in the honey and bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. You want to bring the mixture to a constant steady boil, so turn down the heat to medium or medium-high. If you are using a candy thermometer, you should reach 250-290F or do the cold water test. It should take 20 - 35 minutes to reach this stage. Look for a rich, golden caramel colour and the mixture should look heavy. The caramel reached as high as 250F and I let it boil away at that temperature for 5 minutes or so, testing always in cold water to make sure I had the correct consistency. Take caramel off the stove and carefully dip each apple in the caramel mixture, setting the finished apples on lightly oiled waxed paper or a silpat mat covered in chopped almonds. Place in fridge to set and then wrap each apple in waxed paper.

If you have any leftover caramel, pour the remaining caramel onto a well oiled sheet or silpat mat and sprinkle with almonds and fleur de sel. Refrigerate until cool and cut into squares, wrapping each square in waxed paper.

you don't need sassy, you need spice cake

Some of the best things, when put to paper, oftentimes just don't sound that spectacular. Spice cake? Really? It just doesn't have the ring of awesomeness. Holy-Mother-Flipping-Totally-Rad-Spice-Cake, maybe. Please do not let the lackluster photo or hum-drum name sway you into not making this cake, because really, you must make this cake. It's good. Real good. With every bite my husband was rendered speechless and when he did muster up words, he rapturously muttered things like "be still my heart"*. When the last piece was eaten, I cried a little inside.

Make it now and thank me later. Oh, and go read about my food & wine autumn roadtrip outside of Vancouver for the Food Network blog.

spice cake
2 c flour
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cardamom
1/4 c ground almonds
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
1/2 c oil
1/2 c yogurt
1/2 c milk
1/2 c toasted pecans, chopped
1/2 c raisins

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, ground almonds, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together the brown sugar, molasses, egg and oil until combined. In a measuring cup, mix the milk and yogurt together and set aside.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and gently blend. Add in the milk mixture, along with the pecans and raisins and mix until just combined. Grease and flour a bunt pan and pour in the mixture. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 45-55 minutes or so (depending on the size of your cake pan). Cool slightly on rack and then invert cake from pan and let cool completely or eat warm.

* Okay, he did not say "be still my heart", but it sure paints a better picture than "this is good cake" (which I already mentioned anyway, so there).